Exult

Give it time and pick up things in the mean time - enjoy finding useful information in an friendly albeit sometimes a bit chatty place. If feeling impatient/efficient, use the search function - the first search result will also get you to the advanced search page. Make sure that your search is for "All Content", if that is your intention. The search function also gives you the possibility to make a well formed decision when posting - should I start a new topic(/thread) or should I go with an already existing one? Also don't forget to learn from the magazines (as well as getting a more historical perspective). They are available from every KiteLife forum page by clicking the "Article" tab on the top menu row. Good luck and welcome!, Exult

A pair of handles without a kite looks very incomplete, but yet ready for use. I assume that it increases the joyful agony of kite waiting. I have only tried either wrist or finger straps, yours look like some combo. Would you mind sharing what you think of them after some time using them (compared to other straps if possible)? And finally but not least - which kite did you go with (and no haven't tried any of the abovementioned candidates)? Is it so instead that the image hold any clues, Freilein, Spider kites...?

Sat Sep 30 16:38:39 CEST 2017 GF, forecasted 3-4m/s Fazer XL and XXL stacked on 35m 180kg lines Two 23m (75 ft) prism tube tails To carry stuff After the soon 3 months on QLKing I decided to end that test/project and return to DLKs (and "at the same time" continue with QLKs). During the QLK time I got kind of "transportation spoiled". I only had two kites to carry around: B-series 1.5 std and full vent. The full vent venting holes are patched with removable thin sheets of cellophane attached with (centimeter wide strips of) tape.* Included in the package was two, three and four wrap spars, so these two kites could handle (well could be used by me to practice at least) all the wind conditions that I met during this period. The two quite small QLK kite sleeves were tied together using the strings already on the sleeves (the strings normally used to close the bags i.e.) and hung comfortably over the shoulder and backpack during transport - it wasn't even necessary with a kite bag. Today however the ski bag was the available option to carry the Fazers, the tails and the QLKs and a few line sets. Suddenly a 5.5 kg (12 lb) ski bag was hanging on the shoulder again. * The second iteration of cellophane/tape patching would be to make the tape strips towards the LE somewhat wider. The reason for this is that sometimes I need to press it at the start of the session and possibly one more time to make it stick well. Hopefully the wider tape closer to the LE would improve things. The tape used here is intended for large sheets of polyethene/polyethylene used here because the glue has never left any residues for me. Preparation, making and repair This the first time I pilot a stack or see any stacks of more lines than one. Some info on how I made it can be found in in http://kitelife.com/forum/gallery/image/6234-stack-work-in-progress/ : The stack was made earlier during the summer. The kites themselves have also been resting for more than half a year. Part of the reason has been broken stand offs that had snapped/cracked. The reason why only the Fazer stand offs are the only ones that snap for me is due to the often long line lengths making it difficult to see if a line is wrapped around a wing. You also typically pull harder when starting, meaning that if the line happen to be around the wing the stand off is more likely to break. This Fazer XL stand off was damaged during a start resulting in delamination and snapping fibre (bundles). Could tape keep the fibre bundles together and work as a mold during the repair? Nope, the tape mold approach didn't work out well. The resulting surface was very rough - best seen in the shadow edge. And, I really dislike sanding down glass fibre - itchy, itchy, itchy! The Fazer XXL's stand off was instead repaired using heat shrink tubing. Here the heat shrink tube and epoxy repair had to be split into a two step process, because the cracks were long and the tubing could not be slid over the ends of the standoff. Look closely and you can see that the first step is already finished. No sanding required when heat shrink tubing was used. The pin was not absolutely straight afterwards. Using some kind of a alignment jig would likely have produced a straighter result. To the right you can see the hot air gun used to shrink the tube. The dog in the background might look cute, but is really internally about to explode: "The BALL, the BALL - STUPID!!! Can't you see the BALL stuuupiiid??!!". She might not be of much use when it comes to get work done in outdoors (making you feel bad for not playing with her constantly), but at least fanatically returns any tennis ball shot if you work on your serves in the garden. When playing with (stealing from) the German shepherd she wins by outmaneuvering, even though the German shepherd runs faster when running in straight line on a field. A very never ending playful dog! I decided to try to repair the stand off rods themselves instead of making new ones. I believe that there are several benefits in getting better with epoxy and fibre repairs (or other plastic fibre composites?): if spares/spars break at the wrong time and you don't have spares you have a way out, the feeling "I did this" instead of buying, if your kite ever would require no longer available rods, doing composite repairs could offer a way out. I also consider (/an idea could be) to increase the strength in LE of DLKs just to make it more robust when tip stabbing etc. or if I ever would come to the kite surgery of making a frame lighter. Spars are often uniform throught out the length, while the loads are not. You can have an extra high load in LE connectors or just below the LLE/LS-connector e.g. When it comes to keeping the fibres (somewhat) together, squeezing out excess epoxy, speeding up the curing of the epoxi and minimizing the after work, heat shrink tubing rules and tape "sucks" (to my somewhat limited experience). A requirement is that there is enough room so that you can slide the heat shrink tubing on and it shrinks enough. Tape however is good for masking - covering places where you don't want any epoxy. A common type of heat shrink tubing shrinks to half of its original size (1:2). You can however get hold of (in shops like (Farnell, RS components, ELFA, etc...) sorts that does 1:4 and 1:6 shrinkage at various temperatures. Out on the field The stack. The wind was a bit on the lower side for the somewhat heavy Fazers. I had to work a bit to keep them in the air. After briefly testing the XXL just to verify that I remembered the DLK (Fazer) control well enough (after the DLK pause) I assembled and connected the XL to the XXL. The result was surprising - it just worked out of the box! I didn't feel that it was necessary to do any tweaking. On the other hand one of the to sources of how to do the stack lines was KL so the bridle should be just fine. In the stack the XXL nose was tilted backwards about a centimeter relative to the XL. The stack line connectors on the Fazer XL were prepared for further adjustments, but it didn't seem necessary. The XL had a slight tendency to wobble a bit during most starts, but was quite well behaved otherwise - unless you are "asking for it". Perhaps not so strange oversteer has always been a "hallmark" of the (my?) XL. It is not such a bad thing once I learned to handle it. During windier days I'd say the XL got the temperament of a leaping calf that suddenly can grab you and make you end up three steps downwind. Only one time during this session I was a bit surprised when the stack fell out of the sky after a snap stall. Unless provoked, the kites flew synced, albeit the XL got some oversteer. The main goal of the day was to get the stack working and if it did, try it with the tails. In the a bit low wind and new circumstances I limited the flying to figure flying (how much more than that can you do with a stack b.t.w.?). Only a few times I had the privilege of being dragged by the stack. The most trick like I accomplished was a cart wheel, which demanded a bit more persuasion than usual to work with the stack of different sized kites. Side slides were also possible. Well another thing, but I don't know if you can call it trick-like, was when running quickly backwards to stabilize the stack in the low wind during a start, which caused me to fall backwards like some fall in a Laurel and Hardy movie: Even though I somersaulted backwards on the ground over one of the shoulders it didn't hurt. I guess the pull from the kite limited the speed of the fall. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the stack in flight. The tails were attached to the bridle of the XXL where the LS meet the LE. Visually it would have given the same effect if the tails were attached to the wingtips of the XL. The perspective I had of the kite almost made it look like one kite except if the XL was oversteering/wobbling. Otherwise the size of the stack, long lines, double tails and slow flight gave it kind of dignified look. The effect of the double tail when doing tight loops was however a bit of a disappointment (slow turns of forward travel looked great though). The inner wing tip and tail hardly moved. Moving the tails inwards to somewhere closer to the stand offs could be one way to make the tight loops look better. Another way to make the loops look better could be to attach one tail to each spine (should at least be interesting to see from the side). Perhaps tight loops with the current position also looks better from the side, but piloting the kite meant that I hadn't that view. The position of the tails can be adjusted to make the tight loops look better. Forward flight looked good (as seen from the pilots view). Future The Fazers are quite robust (heavy). One project I consider (i.e. I like the idea but it is not very likely to be implemented) is to make an extra set lower spreaders to use in lighter winds. The diameter of the current ones are 10 mm for the XL and 12 mm for the XXL. Preferably, if it would be good if it would be possible to get hold of thin walled tubes of the same or larger diameter so that the stiffness of the tubes didn't go down too much. What I really would like to do when I "grow up" as a kiter (if you can ever do that with kites) is learn how to handle my sewing machine well and for some reason get an enormous amount of spare time. Then I'd do a kite based on a truss construction ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truss , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Bridge ) instead of single spars. A starter project could be weight reduced spreaders for the Fazers. The weight of the Fazer XL spreaders, 1 TS +2 LS, (according to a very old scale) are 190g for the Fazer XL (680g for the whole kite incl. the stack bridle connectors, total weight according to the Fazer XL datasheet is 615g) and the spreaders of the Fazer XXL are 410g (1305g or 46oz for the whole kite including stack lines and end caps, literally "~xxx g" in the Fazer XXL datasheet). A truss shaped spreader could have a smaller cross section area, while the larger total diameter prevents them from flexing out sideways during compressive load. The, still dreaming, project after that would be the all truss and all mylar sail kites. On the other hand (still sticking to large kites) acquiring another large kite (like Topas 3.0 or Hot Stripe XL?) could get the diameter of the spars down and hopefully the kite up more easily in low winds. No I haven't done much research here - sometimes you just want a kite. No I don't think that I'll fly this stack very often. I miss the tricking possibilities to much. My plan is to get somewhat more acquainted with the control and also to see how much wind I can handle. For next years kite festival the stack is a possible contribution, provided I can find a good place with good winds a bit from the centre of the festival and with not to many people around. Although there have been no good multi line kites during at the festival the two last years (which equals to the times I have been there) I like to increase the competitiveness (yes there are a few prices) by always offering something new and most likely put a tail on it. Does this approach have a light scent of crowd-pleasing? During the last festival I handled it in the following way: Before the price ceremony I flew dual DLKs with tails and after the ceremony I did DLK (one kite) tricking to also demonstrate that aspect of kiting as well. If there would be room for the Fazer stack at the next festival I'd say that the odds look good - the bystander interaction today consisted of three chats, while the usual number could be a chat perhaps every third time. When walking of the field after the 4h stacked session it instead felt like after long day of outdoor (garden/house) work. It was early to bed that night. A slight muscle soreness remained for a few days after as a receipt of that kiting can offer good physical exercise.

Hopefully the beaches are still there 12 years later @Rui, so I think that I'll check this out. I'll go (close) to Faro (south coast of Portugal) between the 29th of October to 3rd of November if nothing unforeseen happens. If anyone happens to be in the area at the time, let me know and I'd be happy to do some sky sharing and kite talking (yes, I know it is another long-shot again, but at least I have to try).

@Paul LaMasters, before seeing the video I considered what "releasing the handles completely" could mean. Was it releasing the LE lines or could it mean giving some slack in the trailing edge lines as well. Now I understand what you meant (as in totally letting go of the handles), though I would prefer some more traditional means of gaining ground (OK I did actually understand that it served as a demo of the built in gliding capabilities). Also clearly demonstrated for me by seeing the video, the increase in "vividness potential" I got from running forward during the gaining of ground glide could be used for so much more than I originally thought of (of course mostly out of reach today, but perhaps some of the skills will be possible to acquire in a future). Or perhaps replacing the word "fly" (as in "pilot") with "practice"?

In short, while gliding downwards with the trailing edge pulled maximum towards you, jogging/running instead of walking is good way of increasing the wumpability of any low wind QLK session (that I just learned recently from here). ... Now over to the rest of the text that might be a bit talkative. I was kind of concerned that starting with QLKing reduced my over all weekly physical exercise dose (1h of tennis + DLKing + garden/house work). This was particularly the case during my 2.5 months (ending 2.5 weeks ago) period during which I was on a strict QLK diet to see how much QLKing I could pick up during that period. Compared to DLKing I missed out on physical exercise, since you have to move quickly with the wind to do the DLK slack line tricks. Then a voice came to my rescue (at least for QLKs in low wind): This is an excellent advice that I for some reason came to think of during the second half my QLK low wind session last week - the thought was so sudden that it was like it just came out of nothing or at least the evening sky. I must have missed it elsewhere (or could it be considered to be a well timed remainder?), this was the one post that made it stick in my head providing me with another piece of the puzzle. Sharing is good, keep on talking kiteish so certain isolated north European kiters might eventually learn. Even though gaining ground is simple with a QLK in my experience, running with the wind made it much more efficient. I now had more room for powering up the sail (i.e. moving backwards in addition to the pulling) making it look much speedier and keen. It was like this second part followed by itself. I think creating the room for powering up (by running forward) it is one thing, but it also sets your feet in motion, once you start running you are in that mode and it is more likely that you continue moving your feet when backing. This active piloting noticeably raised my pulse. For the next low wind session I'm eager to try out how to make good use of this extra room for tensioning the lines, both when flying straight and also when doing turns/rotations. Low wind recently got more attractive both in performance and as a mean of physical exercise! I had to verify a second time before posting - the improved performance during only half a session could just be coincidental (luck?). And after this second low wind pre-work session yesterday morning, the result was the same. I don't know if you gain more ground by running forward (but suppose so), but at least the "pauses" when you gain ground get much reduced and efficient - the session becomes more vivid. I still got started moving the feet quicker and can now chose the level of exercise I want to get during a low wind session. When trying this out I actually aimed for a time when the forecast said low wind, 1-2m/s mean wind speed - a wind speed that normally doesn't make me long for the field - especially not this field. Normally for this field when minimizing the effort when piloting DLK the forecast should say 4-5m/s mean speed. Another benefit of short intensive sessions is that it would fit other non-kite related life better than long marathon sessions and certainly would make the short (low wind) pre-work sessions more rewarding. Now when the 2.5 months is over I should probably re-evaluate how quickly I can move forward while gaining ground with DLKs (without back flipping the DLK) as well.

I'm sorry for the loss, but can't help thinking of those kites you seem to have gotten access to I must confess. A new kite can often lead you to discover new aspects. What can a bunch of new kites do then? If you gain any insight from this or is taken into a new direction I'd like to hear about that. Also great that you can involve your kids while kiting. I haven't had any luck doing this lately.

However, if you are lucky you find a kite/you combo that (after some or perhaps a lot of work to get the basics of starting/landing/controlling) almost suggests one or several tricks for you. I think that this will be more frequent for a >100USD kite. I also think that it is very rare to start with a short list of predetermined tricks (leaving out so very much). How can one know that these are the tricks that will be most easily accessible for you? Once on the field it is more likely that many tricks/moves not on the list will be tried. Most fails and some few might almost work. Guess which ones which feels most rewarding to work on? Another thing that can happen is that you do another trick (possibly one you haven't even imagined before) while attempting a trick, e.g. when attempting half axels you might end up in a turtle. Yes, when doing it on purpose it is also a trick. If the turtles are reliable and the kite allows control over them there is nothing that stops you from working on an instant transition to lazy Susans e.g. With a decent kite you have more to random discover and more openings to various tricks - on your trick list or not.

The fist theme that pops up is some kind of night/shadow/greyStormySky/sea theme. Here are some suggestions: Night ride(er), Nightride, Night wing, Night sky, Night music, Nocturne, Nocturnal darkness of the black night (just kidding), Nocturnal dream, Lucid dream, Nox, Nox hue, Nox shade, Nox shadow, Dark horizon, Ambient occlusion, Occluded night, Dark occlusion, Flat shade, Smooth shade, Cobalt blue, Cobalt sky/sea, Nimbus, Stormy waters, Dusk squall, Eerie ash... Why only dramatic?: Slow Sunday (rain), (Slow) Morning rain, Spring evening, Dream of dawn, Dawn dream, Poly(ester) dream... More nature - mineral rocks!: Slate impact, Slate, Dark ore, Iron ore, Blue/Black onyx, Graphite haze (why not?)

Unless there are some other non kiting reasons that we don't know of (and they can be very real/good) this decision sounds a bit premature. 1. The time so far spent on kiting here is less than it typically takes to learn one trick. 2. CA-glue, Tedlar tape and some carbon spare tubes get you through the first time. 3. Remember: Whatever you try, whatever you do - There is always someone on YouTube that is better than you. 99.9% of all human beings need to accept this.

Which makes me think of the recent topic http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/8228-general-publics-reaction-to-kites/, especially these unpolite cows then indulge in eating while you are busy piloting! Otherwise I thought UK cows were of a particular curious breed. This summer when in Sidmouth (Devon, UK) along one of many public foot paths (actually someone's will a long time ago also turned nicely placed areas into areas where the public was allowed). At the start of the DLK session I was worried that I might upset the cows in the neighboring pasture. After all our kite ambassadorship extends all the way into the pastures IMO. The fear that the cows would get upset was much exaggerated - they moved towards the gate to get a better view!. Talking of fear, these cows that I had passed several times during kiting sessions I later heard, had one bull walking among them... Teaming up with their buddies to see some kite sporting. Trying to get the best view possible. I wonder if cows to some extent can appreciate a view like this. The mini photo to the right/down is a "close up" of one of the kite eating/wearing stone beaches. In the background, walking on the beach, you can "see" my wife.

Thank you for some positively minded reading! Thank you for showing the way! All to need to do to have some nice bystander interaction is to switch to SLKs and make a massive massive display. A little great kite festival of your own and then you can have those little nice chats. Perhaps people are somewhat limited by politeness when DLK/QLK sessions are ongoing instead, when piloting one looks focused and occupied and they may think that the pilot should not be bothered. I'm sure that arranging with all the above kites is a lot of work, but they are not being constantly piloted. Could the time, when (hopefully) only monitoring the kites is necessary, give opportunities and open up for discussion with the people around you?

The wind is[1], the kite(s) is/are, the line/lines is/are, you are[2], the ground is there[3]. The flying however is whatever amuses you - a clear matter of preference! No matter if I turn every stone upside down or look behind every leave in the nature around my kiting fields I'll not find a note containing an approved set of moves ... and it is a good thing which adds to the value[4] of kiting for me. I like the explorer attitude in http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/720-quad-tricks-i-think-i-created/ , though I'm not in a position to determine if the discovered tricks were originally discovered (but don't see that as the most important part, but rather the spirit). If/when I get the QLK axel going the Korvokites'[5] (not HQ) freestyle QLK Mosquito QLK could be something to try out. Kiting unlimited ... or at least in a wide sense! As you know sometimes 0m/s is a good approximation of wind speed, however the molecular mean thermal velocity in air is about 464m/s, which you typically don't observe directly ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_velocity ). Singular or plural In most cases, but not always, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trk0KAe8y8Q What is the minimum sum required for you not to ever fly (and make) kites again? Yes, this is a repulsive question. Though a German based site, the web site is also available in English. A week ago I managed to do long ground slides (because I liked it, not required for launching), just like a slow DLK LE launch with a delayed or omitted take off. This was on a reasonably dense and well cut lawn, so the abrasion should be minimal. My B-series 1.5 std bridle do show signs of wear, but I suspect that that is from a kite grinding and eating greedy stone beach that effectively adds a fee to your kiting. None the less I consider to protect the bridle (closest to the end caps) by covering the end caps with heat shrink tubing, which should be lighter than vinyl end caps. I.e. effectively move the bridle attach point inward be about 2cm to a less exposed position. Perhaps quicker to cover the most exposed part with tape instead? Worn bridle closest to the end cap. Another idea, when replacing the bridle, at the points of wear, why not add extra sleeving as used for kite lines (or a thin plastic (polyurethane?) tubing stub around the exposed part of the bridle as an extra resistant sleeving)? Yet another idea, if there is any risk of cracking the end cap through tip stabbing, perhaps one could attach a rubber plate under the heat shrink tubing covering the outmost part of the end cap? To handle the wear on the LE I also consider to attach a strip of sacrificial black rip stop tape on the front side of the LE. Another more impressive way to handle the wear and tear would be to try to mimic a ground slide leaving some minimal distance of air between the ground and kite, but that would really require impressive skills for a perfect illusion. I believe in learning tricks/moves/combos approaching them from bottom up/top down/sideways/parallel/slow/quick (you always learn something and often about possible ways which the kite can move), but above all do try frequently. I agree there are ways that are more straight on to the trick/move, but it can't be of any harm (which also never was really stated in the above quote) doing a couple quick bicycles moves. This should quickly reveal any weaknesses in the rotation and also you get started now and don't need to wait for the perfect clockwork before starting the bicycle learning process. One typically aim for not to think about the hand movements, but instead focus on the detailed and at the same time over all kite movements. To some times at least try working from top down some times is not wrong IMO. Also I can see value in beginner time on the lines where one figures out what can be found in the "landscape" before homing in to the standard moves. I also try to mix slow and (to the best of my abilities) quick to be able to express a wider repertoire (argg, trying to convey things like this always sounds so deep). If one enjoys the quick but yet demanding control, QLKs (including the Super Sonic) are not the only answer - DLKs are available for this as well.

Hmm.., darkness, frustration and aggravation... Those ungrateful bastards that get a show for free should really instead pay a fee and form up in arena large circles around you and do the wave . In fact I do understand much of the above. Also every time I see a kite video with often fantastic moves (meaning tricks and/or precision) it mostly gets completely ignored by people that happen to walk by. Strange! How could they! Can't they see?? Then I think of horses and soccer. If I pass any activity of this sort I almost couldn't care less - it is just background. I wouldn't look twice unless the horse's physical dimensions would make it into Guinness Book of World Records, the rider did acrobatics on it's back, the soccer field was flooded knee high or (really bad) every player in the two teams would be involved in a fight. How absurd this may sound, it might be people that thinks similar of kiting... When flying over here I get very little interaction with others. During the last two months I heard two positive things: "What a hi-tech kite you got" and "The wind is very good for flying today" and no nothing about the piloting (which may be somewhat fair because of my QLK rookieness, but yet...). (On the other hand it might be so that it was just an example of what the authority Jannis Joplin said about the Swedish mentality at 00:30 and 01:13 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmgSzbdL1So (and excuse me for linking to a video with such hard language in the headline)) No, not everything is darkness, the two best comments I've got (historically) is: (said in an elder man in a dramatic voice) "Thank you, thank you for visualizing the wind!" and (said by an apparently art interested woman) "I do events(or happenings/installations? - can't remember the exact phrase) and collect beautiful things, I'd like to write music [for a i.a. flying event] to your flying". She never returned in the matter though, but I must confess that I was quite surprised and flattered for the time. What a coincidence @RobB. While writing the text before I got to post my comment I was thinking of more than one of your videos where some zombie ghost walkers appears totally unaware of the ongoing sessions of excellent flying.

I also started out with QLKs rather recently. I never bothered with leaders. Initially I found it easier to fly (before finding out about LE flexing and sail loading) medium setting on the top lines (in the middle on the knot range - no leaders). The most frequent way to accidentally flap the vertical spars is IMO to pull too much on the brake lines (can flying close to the edge of the wind wind window trigger this as well?) - Small inputs and slowly especially when going backwards! Wait a while with the leaders until you learn basic QLK control and can keep it in the air for some minutes at least. OK back to the drive issue. Try what happens when pulling both handles. The LE should now deform and the kite should speed up, stop pulling and the LE flexes back and more or less stops (if this doesn't happen change frame or kite with another degree of venting). Control the pitch angle of the kite during the forward drive so the the trailing edge doesn't flap. You will be rewarded with a low wooooshing sound when going forwards. Now you can start to add length to the top line by choosing a knot further out. To get the kite going forward, deform the LE by pulling the handles towards you. Pulling on all four lines will (hopefully) give you the nice wooshing sound. Pulling mostly on the top lines will give you the (ugly?) flapping trailing edge. I'm currently at the last outmost knot of the handle without adding any leaders. This was what I believed until today's session. Then I found out that both rear bungee cords had been twisted catching roughly an equal amount of (rear) bridle. When undoing this I'm going to need leaders to achieve the same pitch (relative to the lines).

, I can only imagine what my wife would say if i tried those arguments!

A UL/SUL might be limiting, only having a narrow wind range. Are the typical winds so that you most of the times are able to cancel out or out-walk the wind if you walk fast? If not, consider going for a standard wind range. You could choose a standard wind range kite, but geared towards the lower end (e.g. 7ft+ spanwidth with a large sail area). And as @Wayne Dowler said above, carbon fibre will get you lower weight as well (than your current kite). Added 30 minutes later: Should it be rather be cancelling the wind by light jogging? Opinions?

Had to look the Premier Osprey up (as is the case with most kites and all Premier kites): a 60in/152cm kite with glass fibre tubes. I think the the typical next step would be to choose between an intermediate or more towards the (full size?) DLK "expert" models (dependent upon how much you are prepared spend) of a well known brand, but not a boutique grade (I don't own any so far b.t.w. but then I like to try many models and aspects of kiting) kite yet. If you have learnt not to pull the lines when trying to avoid a crash, but your reflexes tell you that non-powered ground contact (if the kite is falling like a leave e.g.) is perfectly safe, then go for the good kite. Even if you are not there and don't mind occasional CA-glueing, carbon fibre spars sawing and sail tapeing you could still go with the better model (a path I went along myself a long time ago). Also a full size kite is probably easier to control but is in my experience a bit more sensitive during "sudden ground contact". Do yourself, the next person you are going to train on your old kite and and any multiline kiter around you a favour. When getting hold of a proper line set - feel the difference before and after you switched to the (good) polyethene lines. Also you don't need to fear that you would accidentally chop someone else's lines off would your lines cross any other multi line kiter's lines. No, the 4D is not probably the natural next step kite, rather a complement to your (lower?) medium wind range (full size?) next kite. It didn't initially feel "like a real kite", but took me quite long before I learnt to appreciate it. On the other hand, whatever you use you tend to get used to. But bear in mind that one session on gravel might tear a hole in its nose. It is a very light kite where little material has been used.

I'm more than halfway through my project to see how much QLKing I can learn in 2.5 months - I have one month left. I decided not to do any DLK piloting during this period, which I haven't, except for the very first part of the period. The video you found makes it much tempting to deviate from that path by unboxing the Vapor. Went on to look for more youtube Vapor videos after seeing the above video. I think the below one addresses how much a light wind kite it is, though most likely the required footwork would be more than for Mark Reed: And b.t.w., good luck with your trick learning!

I think the discussion here missed the word "travel". A large case swallows many kites obviously (though not clear how many) that are more protected than ordinary softer kite bags can offer. You don't even need to fly (as in air travel) to benefit from a hard case (though I've seen horrible package handling from an aeroplane window before getting off). Just going by a long journey bus were other heavy luggage could be thrown on you kites in the luggage room under would be quite worrying. Besides, if you don't bring a very large amount of kites this case could offer a nice complement to the normal carry on luggage. My traveling has been more modest - just tested (two) different thick walled paper tubes as check in luggage i.e.

So Spectra or Dyneema are brand names to confuse you (or are there any subtle differences)? For me there are mainly two types of lines: polyethene aka. polyethylene and polyester lines. (The kevlar line I've heard (a long time ago) is ugly because it is extra easy to get badly cut due to its high friction. Any truth in this? Haven't seen them being sold though.) Polyethene aka. polyethylene lines. The main difference between your ordinary plastic bag are that the long molecule chains are parallel to the line and the molecule chains are much longer. This type of lines is what you typically use in multi line kiting for good control and what you hopefully get when lines are shipped with the kite. I have never been really thrilled by the lines that comes with a RTF/R2F (ready to fly) kite - they have had a kind of rough feel. Most of the time I use Climax Profiline for DLKs and for my current QLK rookie fad I use Liros. Apart from the colours I can't see or feel any difference between the two brands, but then I use them in a different ways. And nope, never tried those LPG or Shanti lines. Polyester lines. Good for SLK (gliders excluded?) but too flexible/spongy and not low-friction/slippery enough for multi line kiting. It is a scourge of the serious multi line kiter. I've been to two small local kite festivals during this millennium (the total number of other DLKs were three frequently lawn-darted odd/low quality ones). I started out a bit away from others (SLKs i.e.) to get more room and better winds. What follows is that the barely flying and low flying SLKers see a kite/place where the wind appears to be good and maneuvers their kites with lines almost parallel to the ground (SLKs requiring somewhat higher winds or SLKs just less well tuned?) towards me (or do they just want want to watch from a closer distance?). I have had three line sets chopped off when polyester lines have crossed my path during these two festivals! This makes me think I ought to buy a long spool of 40kg kite line instead of line sets and then prepare a set-of-line-sets and consider them kite festival consumables?

... if, when getting off some means of public transportation during a nothing to do with kites trip, you sometimes feel worried because it feels like you forgot something important in there (and then you realize that you never brought a kite bag in the first place).

I'd say that the size is an asset (once on the field) for a full sized kite. The size often adds stability/precision and counteracts twitchyness and besides for everything that go outdoors to the field, the apparent size shrinks once there (especially when using long lines).